When the New York Times reported that a pro-Mitt Romney super PAC was toying with a proposal to attack President Obama by highlighting his connections to his former pastor, the controversial far-left Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the liberal media went predictably apoplectic, calling the proposed ad campaign “incendiary and racially-tinged,” ignoring of course the incendiary things Wright thundered from the pulpit for years.

That's why Time magazine's Mark Halperin's defense of Romney and his Super PAC on the May 18 Morning Joe program is striking by contrast. [Audio here. Video below the jump.]

Halperin questioned the news judgment of placing the story on the front page of the Times, noting that this was ad that was not going to be done, hence not as big of a story. Predictably, liberal ad executive Donny Deutsch rushed to disagree, saying that he was interested in the story “as a reader, not as a Democrat.” As a Democrat, Deutsch has been very generous to the Democratic party, giving thousands to candidates such as John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, and Chuck Schumer according to OpenSecrets.org. Deutsch also tossed in a predictable talking point against the left-wing bogeyman of the past few years, the Citizen's United ruling, calling the Court's opinion in that case, “the most frightening decision of my lifetime as far as a shot at democracy.”

Co-host Willie Geist asked, “Does Mitt Romney owe it to the media, does he owe it to voters to explain a story of a group to which he is not attached?” Halperin jumped in, accusing the media of McCarthyism, saying: